Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture
Dr Valérie Gonzalez
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
2001
Five essays explore aspects of aesthetics
in classical Islamic thought in light of contemporary theories, offering
new perspectives on Islamic with examples ranging from the Qur'an and
the Alhambra to the works of present day artists and philosophers.
Tracing the roots of Islamic aesthetics back to the works of the
philosophers of the Middle Ages such as Avicenna and Averroes, Valerie
Gonzalez finds that aesthetic theory in Islam must be seen within the
much wider context of parallel thinking on theology, ethics, physics,
and metaphysics. She balances her analysis of this philosophy (moral,
logical, and scientific) of beauty with the equally important analysis
of the perceptual experience of beauty.
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